How Wendy’s Franchise Owners Helped Fund An Employee’s Dream To Study At Yale

At 13, Thalles DeSouza and his family escaped dangerous conditions in Brazil, in search of a new start in Massachusetts. In high school, he began working at a local Wendy’s to help make ends meet, planning for a future career in construction. But when his franchise owners noticed his work ethic and potential, everything changed. Today, the 23-year-old is preparing for his freshman year at Yale University with the help of his fast-food bosses.

“I remember there were days when I was closing Wendy’s, and I used to think to myself, ‘I really want to move on,'” DeSouza said, CBS News reported. “I thought if I go to construction, I can work hard, make money and eventually go to college,” DeSouza told “Good Morning America” in an interview.

But Wendy’s franchise owners, Usama El-Sehrawey and Ernest Smily, had other plans.

“I said, ‘OK, you need to work hard, but if you stay with us at Wendy’s, we will make sure you’ll be able to go to college,'” El-Sehrawey said. “So just work hard, and for every hour you work, we’re gonna put money aside for your college education.”

El-Sehrawey and Smiley helped fund his tuition to Cape Cod Community College because they “saw a bright future in him.” For that reason, the owners said they wanted to do anything they could to help DeSouza continue his education.

“At the time, I had no idea how much that opportunity would change my life,” DeSouza wrote online. Thanks to his franchise owners’ investment and years of DeSouza’s hard work, he went from the drive-thru window to an Ivy League campus.

On Facebook, DeSouza shared a photo from the moment he thanked El-Sehrawey and Smily’s son, Terry Smily, in person—showing them just how far their investment had taken him.

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“They own all the Wendy’s restaurants across Cape Cod and the Plymouth area here in Massachusetts, but what has always stood out to me is not what they built as business owners. It’s the way they invest in people,” DeSouza wrote. He went on to thank both families for their generosity.”[It] opened a door that changed my life, and I will always be grateful. Sometimes all it takes is one person who believes in you. I’m living proof of that.”

DeSouza told CBS News that he didn’t have a lot of faith in himself.

“People look to Wendy’s workers, and they think, you know, that is not a job I want to do one day. But I think if it wasn’t Wendy’s, if it wasn’t for the work ethics that I learned at Wendy’s, I don’t think I would have come to the place that I got.”

But De Souza’s journey began in a reality far removed from higher education.

In an Instagram video capturing his reaction to his Yale acceptance letter, DeSouza described in the caption being nearly killed in a shootout inside his own home while he slept. He recalled that his family lived “in the Vila Kennedy community, located in the Bangu neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro—one of the most dangerous places in Brazil, marked by violence, poverty, and loss, where many of my family members and friends lost their lives in shootouts.”

But 10 years later, he will attend “one of the most prestigious universities in the world—with a 100% full scholarship valued at over 1 million reais!”

Concluding his Instagram caption, DeSouza shared words of encouragement.

“Not long ago, I was right there—lost, directionless, and like so many others, just another unlikely statistic in the eyes of society… But God had the final word,” he penned. “If there is one thing I hope people take away from my story, it is this: the favela was born to win, too. Where you come from does not determine where you can reach. And sometimes, the most impossible journeys take us to places we never imagined reaching. All glory to Jesus!”

De Souza will begin at Yale in September. He plans to study political science and human rights on a pre-law track.